more on Cairo taxis

Back in Cairo now, and the trip was uneventful, with one charming exception… The usual limousine and Mercedes guys were trying to get ridiculous prices out of me. A nice old white-haired taxi driver was listening in on their bids, and immediately undercut them. I went with the white-haired guy.

As we drove away from the airport, he shook his head with disgust, pointed back in the general direction of the taxi counters of the airport, repeated the price he had correctly heard the other guy offer me, and contemptuously dismissed him as “Ali Baba.”

It was then as smooth, safe, fast, and polite a ride as you’re ever going to get from a taxi in this city. So when we got to Zamalek, I told him he wasn’t Ali Baba, but handed him the same price Ali Baba had asked for. I do that sometimes as a gift to the honest drivers, and of course they’re always delighted.

In fact, it is my usual habit to bargain for a much lower price than I intend to pay for these taxis. That’s partly a way of sifting the honest drivers from the shysters, and partly a way to give myself a cushion in case there’s a traffic jam and they decide to start jacking the original price way up (as if any taxi driver is ever surprised by a traffic jam in Cairo).